New York Governor’s Race Coverage: Part 6

Greetings, this is the latest installment on a series covering the 2018 New York Governor’s Race.

Those who would like to view previous installments can find them here:

In the past few weeks, may of the state’s political parties held their 2018 conventions and made important decisions on who they would nominate for governor.

The Republican Party decided to nominate Marc Molinaro for Governor and Julia Killian for Lieutenant Governor. While it had been clear for some weeks that Marc Molinaro had gathered enough support to able to clearly secure the Republican nomination, the convention has now formally established him as the Republican nominee. And given Molinaro’s selection of Killian as his running mate in the days proceeding the election, it was clear that she would likely secure the nomination.

The Reform Party decided to nominate Molinaro a well. Previously, the Reform Party had held an executive meeting for considering candidates, in which the leadership were divided on who to endorse, and Marc Molinaro and Joel Giambra were leading contenders. But in the convention, Molinaro was able to secure enough support to gain their nomination. With this decision, Molinaro has now gained the nomination of the Republican, Conservative, and Reform Parties, and will appear on at least their three ballot lines.

The Green Party convention resulted in the selection of Howie Hawkins as their candidate for Governor and Jia Lee for Lieutenant Governor. Hawkins and Lee had already seemed to the clear front runners for the nomination, well before the convention, but now their nomination has become official. This marks Hawkins third time as the Green Party candidate for Governor of New York.

At their convention, the Working Families Party formally endorsed Cynthia Nixon for Governor and Jumaane Williams for Lieutenant Governor. This formalized the support the endorsement which the Working Families Party had given to them earlier. With this established it is possible that Cynthia Mixon Might appear on the ballot in November, even if she fails to gain the Democratic nomination. Though it remains to be seen whether that will occur.

The Democratic Party held its state convention. Incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo was selected with 95% of the convention vote and Incumbent Lieutenant Governor Cathy Hochul was selected with 96% of the convention vote. Cuomo and Hochul were being challenged by democratic challangers Cythia Nixon and Jumaane Williams. Though the convention selection does not mean an end to this competition. The official final selection of candidates will occur at the Democratic Primary in September. Nixon has stated that she intends to continue her campaign and fac off against Cuomo in the Democratic Primary. Since Nixon didn’t get 25% of the vote at the convention, she will need to collect a petition of 15,000 signatures in order to get on the Democratic Primary ballot.

With these conventions over with, we move closer towards seeing what the match up will be on the November Ballots, and we move closer to the height of the Governor’s race.